News Adel, Iowa
Bob "Come back"
All doubt about whether or not Bob Feller, Dallas county's famous pitcher, could "come back" after four ye/rs in the service, was dispelled/at Cleveland, Ohio, Friday night
He came bark, but he showed ntore stuff than he had when he gave \f baseball a few days after Pearl fearbor to join .the navy. He gave nhe American League's leading team, the Detroit Tigers, a decisive 4-2 defeat before .a crowd of 50,000 wild-eyed Cleveland fans.
He allowed the hard hitting Detroit club only four hits and struck out twelve men. For his .achievement he is again rated by sports writers as the top ranking pitcher in either of the big leagues.
And to prove conclusive^ (hat he has all of his old speed and control, Bob beat the Chicago White Sox last night 8 to 2L He allowed 8 hits but kept them well scattered.
Bob .donned a Cleveland uniform a few .hours after he was formally released from the navy where he j had served with distinction, much! of the time overseas. For several months be has been stationed at the Great Lakes, wThere He was in charge of the athletic program and where he pitched some remarkable games for the Great Lakes team. He was in fine shape when he walked to the Cleveland mound.
Among the gifts showered upon him at a civic luncheon attended by the Ohip governor, the mayor of Cleveland and a thousand fans, was a jeep which will probably become a familiar sight around Van Meter and Adel when the season is over. His contract with the Cleveland Indians is said to call for $40,000 a year for his services. The contract wTas signed less than 24 hours after he received his discharge from the navy.
Previous to his induction on December 11, 1941, Feller had pitched for Cleveland for six years-starting when he was only 16 years old. In that time he set records galore.
In the six years he allowed 1,149 hits and struck out 1,233 batters.
During his last three seasons he won 76 games and lost only 33, for a percentage of .699.
In his first major league game, an exhibition with the Cardinals, he struck out eight of nine batters in the three innings he labored, the ninth popping oyt to the catcher.
The strikeouts wexe .punctuated by two bases on balls.
Feller tied the major league record of 17 strikeouts in a game against the Philadelphia Athletics.
He broke the major league record when he fanned 18 of the Detroit Tigers, although beaten 4-1.
He pitched a no-hitter in the opening game of the .1940 season against the Chicago White Sox. He fanned 16 Boston Red .Sox players in one game. .
In two successive games he struck out 28 batters.
He led the American league in strikeouts for four consecutive years, from 1938 through 1941. He led the league in shut-outs in '39, '40 and '41, and averaged 250 strikeouts during the four years preceding his enlistment in the navy.
And there are "many other records set from the time he jumped from the amateur lots of Iowa tlirectly into the big show. Home folks are proud of his records, proud of the fact that he served his country long and well, and prouder still that he is the same modest, unassuming Bob Feller he was when he started his career throwing a baseball at the barn door on his father's farm near Van Meter. o
BOB FELLER
As He Appeared When He Joined
Cleveland As A Boy.
